The Daily Show Notes Irony of Koch-Funded Study Affirming Global Warming is Real

The Daily Show Notes Irony of Koch-Funded Study Affirming Global Warming is Real

Last night's entire first segment of The Daily Show focused on the recent study funded by the Koch Brothers that confirmed (again) that climate change is indeed a reality - an ironic twist given the Kochtopus' track record of fueling the climate change denial echo chamber with upwards of $55 million.

As described in an earlier piece on DeSmogBlog, “The [Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST)] paper, an effort to confirm or debunk whether the urban heat island (UHI) effect was skewing climate records, has affirmed - again - that global temperature records are accurate and worrisome.”

In a manner that only John Stewart and his Daily Show team can, they unpacked the hilarious irony of the whole situation. The segment, roughly ten minutes long, is well worth watching for the laughs alone, especially the McRib-ing of the mainstream media's pathetic coverage of climate science and fixation on corporate advertising ploys. And Aasif Mandvi's interviews, of course. Watch the video below:

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As Stewart’s clip points out - this story isn’t getting nearly the coverage that ClimateGate did - lots of reasons for that of course, but a main one is that “ClimateGate” had a PR machine behind it, and one of the things they did was name it “ClimateGate” – I’m looking to DeSmog for the name of this counter story – can we get some thing snappier than “Koch-Funded Study that Affirms Climate Change Is Real” or “The [Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST)] paper Story”?

From the Daliy Mail “Scientist who said climate change sceptics had been proved wrong accused of hiding truth by colleague.”

The 2nd lead author of that paper, Dr. Judith Curry, says that all the claims made in the rushed press-releases were a mistake, accusses Prof Muller of “hiding the decline” when he stated that warming had not reached a standstill.

Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.

There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.

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